Mr. Cillian Lohan:

I will respond to questions on the performance of the green economy in local areas. The concept is new; the terminology which had a very limited definition was first used by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in the Action Plan for Jobs. One of the things about which we spoke to the then Minister was how to broaden the definition and collect baseline information on what we called the "green economy". Like all words, language becomes polluted over time and is misused. It is very hard to measure performance when the definition is quite loose, but we know that within certain sectors such as the 500 designated Natura 2000 sites which cut across the farming community throughout the country, that for each €1 billion invested, one could create 29,000 jobs on Natura 2000 sites. In contrast, an investment of €1 billion under the Common Agricultural Policy could creates between 3,000 and 6,000 jobs. There are opportunities to create employment locally that is sustainable in the long term. The word "green" has a different connotation in a national context than it does across the rest of Europe. The Deputy referred to us as the "green pillar" which may have political implications, but we are not affiliated to a political party. The concepts are sustainability and long-term viability testing. Food Harvest 2020 was rolled out as policy in 2010 without any testing of its impact in the long term. I do not think one can put responsibility on the farming community for taking advantage of policies, programmes and subsidies if the consequence of their activities is environmental degradation and the loss of healthy soil and biodiversity on farmlands. I do not think they can take 100% responsibility if the impact of Government policy has not been tested. It seems ludicrous to pursue a policy that has not been tested to see whether it is sustainable over a long period of time. Following a complaint to the Commission, this analysis of Food Harvest 2020 has now been done and, as my colleague, Mr. Ewing, alluded to, we are responding to it through the public consultation process and engaging actively with the Department on it. I do not want to be too distracted by Food Harvest 2020 which will effectively be out of date in another two years once the milk quotas change. Much has changed since 2010 when that policy was first rolled out.